Mississippi Heat- Don't Look Back
- chicagoblueseditor
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Release date: September 2025
Delmark Records
By Greg Easterling
One of Chicago’s longest running blues band collectives has delivered one of their all-time finest efforts with the forward looking title of Don’t Look Back. Mississippi Heat features founder and harpist Pierre Lacocque with his usual blend of regular members and guests, a number of whom once played in the band. For the record, this is Pierre’s 14th album since Mississippi Heat debuted with Straight From The Heart in 1992. And yet, he describes Don’t Look Back as “the bluesiest project I’ve done in years” with 14 original songs written by Pierre during Covid. He used a time of destruction to create something constructive that will go down as one of the top blues albums of 2025. The individual players in Mississippi Heat’s history reads like a local blues hall of fame: the late Carl Weathersby to whom the album is dedicated, Bob Stroger, Little Smokey Smothers, Billy Flynn, John Primer, Lurrie Bell and Robert Covington.
Don’t Look Back literally blasts off with “You Ain’t The Only One”, a direct but empathetic statement in song that reminds the listener that they aren’t the only person who feels like that. “Are you barely holding on?/ Stuck in a life that’s all gone wrong?/ Well you ain’t the only one/feeling that way.” Chicago blues singer Sheryl Youngblood tours with Mississippi Heat now and delivers the message here on the album’s opening song. She’s supported by a trio of background singers who once backed Aretha, now known as Nadima: Nanette Frank, Diane Madison and Mae Koen. What a vocal 1-2 punch! Instrumental solos by guitarist Giles Corey and Pierre on harp are also a knockout.
Guest vocalist Danielle Nicole takes the lead next on “Third Wheel”. It’s another real life situation between partners that often shows up in Pierre’s songs. The tune sparkles with guest contributions from Billy Flynn on guitar and Johnny Iguana on piano with Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith on drums. Nicole will return later on the album.
Mississippi Heat’s longtime lead singer Inetta Visor returns on “Quarter To Three.” Pierre gives her major props as one of the main reasons that Mississippi Heat has done so well over the decades. He sets the theme and solos as Inetta duets with Daneshia Hamilton. It’s a full sounding jam with both Giles and Billy playing guitar along with keyboard accompaniment by Johnny Iguana and Brother John Kattke, two local notables who have supported legends such as Junior Wells. Junior was also a major influence and friend to Pierre in the early days.
Then it’s time for confession and forgiveness on “Stepped Out of Line”. It has a gospel feel that wouldn’t be out of place in church with a great acoustic piano and organ intro and solo from Iguana and Kattke. And Sheryl Youngblood is back in the booth tapping into her gospel roots with Pierre’s blues harp sounding as natural in the sanctuary as it does onstage in a blues club.
The tone changes to accusation on “I Can’t Take It”. Several of Pierre’s latest songs here deal with addiction and its negative consequences. Sheryl changes her tune and goes on the attack vocally while Pierre, Iguana,and Kattke supply the fireworks in their individual ways so well.
Up next it’s “Moonshine Man,” one of two major blues harp duets that Pierre included with his special guest Omar Coleman, who is among the best of the next generation of Chicago blues artists. Pierre could have done a whole album of nothing but harp jams and that would have been great, but he opted to take a more varied approach overall. Pierre plays amplified harp while Omar plays acoustic. Giles Corey pitches in with a nice guitar solo too. Make no mistake, it was the great Chicago blues harp players that were Pierre’s inspiration to make music back in the Sixties and Seventies. From his first exposure to Big Walter Horton one night as a teen in Hyde Park to Little Walter, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield, Rice Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II and face to face with Junior Wells at Theresa’s, it’s all about the blues harp for Pierre and he’s continuing the tradition.
Sheryl returns “Champin’ at the Bit” with exceptional solos from Pierre, Billy Flynn and Johnny Iguana. The anxiety that fueled this song is recent and real. “Covid checks stopped coming/savings are low/bad times are looming/no place to go”. Especially for artists who depend on live appearances to make ends meet.
Then it's time for a love song, even if it’s of the long distance type, “Love (It Makes You Do Most Anything)”. Pierre leads off this joyful romp with great solos from Corey, Iguana, and Pierre. The women of Nadima are also heard on background vocals supporting Sheryl along with the horns of Marc Franklin on trumpet and Kirk Smothers on saxophone.
The next tune is the most personal of the entire album, “Shiverin’ Blues”, dedicated to Pierre’s father Andre, a spiritual leader who never recovered physically from the Covid-19 disease. Guest Danielle Nicole returns for an emotion filled performance on this slow blues with the harp of Pierre backed by Corey, Kattke, Brian Quinn on acoustic bass and Kenny Smith on drums. It’s a heavy topic with the best of intentions and Danielle’s passionate vocals deliver the message.
Next Pierre takes us back to schooldays with “The Sock Hop”. It’s a nostalgic rock ‘n’ roll number played by bluesmen who understand, especially Jason “J Rock” Edwards on drums and Billy Flynn on slide guitar. The punchy horns are back with Nadima’s backup harmonies, too. And Sheryl is the engaging lead vocalist once again, beckoning us to hit the dance floor in the school gym.
“Blue Amber” explores a situation that Pierre is aware of through his other profession in the field of psychology. It’s the story of a stepchild whose step father is jealous of his wife’s love for her daughter. It’s not typical subject matter for a blues song but that’s another respect in which Pierre is different from most other songwriters.
It’s a more familiar kind of jealousy that informs “I Ain’t Evil” between a couple and one of the partners who gets extra attention. Corey gets a chance to shine with a basic Mississippi Heat lineup, also featuring Brian Quinn on bass and Pierre on harp.
It’s the title track now and Sheryl Youngblood’s final contribution to Don’t Look Back. Of the fourteen songs on the album she sang lead on nine of them. She is the live voice of Mississippi Heat now besides her own band appearances. Sheryl finishes here with a jam featuring Pierre, Giles Corey, Billy Flynn, and John Kattke.
The album concludes with Pierre’s second harp duet with Omar Coleman entitled “Four Steel Walls”. Omar sings it too, as he does with his own band playing around town in Chicago. It’s a great way to wrap things up with a Harp Attack themed jam to finish what will go down as one of Mississippi Heat’s finest albums.
Don’t Look Back was co-produced by Pierre and his longtime fellow producer, the Grammy-winning Michael Freeman. It was recorded at V.S.O.P Studios in Chicago. Other musicians contributing to the album included Big Mike Perez on bass, Anthony Alexander on percussion and Natalie Bennison contributes hand clapping.
Mississippi Heat and Don’t Look Back is a bridge between 20th Century Chicago Blues and the development of the blues in our current century.The vitality of this album bodes well for future releases from Mississippi Heat and their fellow travelers on this musical onramp to the future.
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Website: https://mississippiheat.net/
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About the Author: Greg Easterling is a veteran Chicago radio air personality and media member of the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame. He is the host of American Backroads on WDCB, 90.9 FM in the Chicago area, Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Greg also a hosts Brass and Electric, a jazz fusion show on WDCB on Monday nights.
